By: Betsy Ahlersmeyer, Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, Muncie
Over the last few years, Holy Trinity Lutheran Church Muncie has perfected hosting aneighborhood church barbeque. Our guests are entertained and well-fed. The atmosphere is congenial and light-hearted. What they don’t know is how the barbecue comes to be.
The organizing committee starts their work in mid-summer, and the first order of business is to find chairpersons.
The number varies but at least two people are needed to cover all the duties required. This year Kathy McCauliffe and Dawn-Marie Oberly were those people. Some of their tasks include contacting a catering company with an approximate number of meals needed. This number started out was just a guess in the first year as it was impossible to predict how many neighbors would come. To our delight the number continues to grow. Non-profit organizations must also be contacted.
The groups provide information about their services and even blood pressure checks. Diane Calvin organizes a book giveaway, hoping those books will find their way into a child's hands or onto a neighbor's bedside table. Children’s games are planned to assure the youngest guests are happy and busy.
Volunteers must be willing to set-up, serve and clean and tear down at the end of the day. The entertainment most recently has been a bluegrass/country group, and they needed to agree to perform.
The day of the barbecue starts immediately after church services with setting up tables and chairs in the parking lot. The greatest amount of work begins later in the afternoon as the non-profit groups set up their tents, boxes of books are hauled outside and the equipment needed for the games come out of storage. The band arrives and begins their set-up on a flat-bed trailer. Extension cords are fed out the window and microphones are tested and the guitars and fiddles are tuned.
The caterer arrives with boxes holding the barbecued pulled pork, pasta salad and sweet and sour green beans. A variety of chips in individual bags are arranged on the table next to the hot dogs and all the delicious home-baked cookies are wheeled out of the kitchen. Lemonade and water fill out the menu.
When 5 o’clock arrived it was all hands on deck as we serve nearly two hundred meals to our friends and neighbors.
